Court to hear PNP application to take Trafigura appeal to Privy Council

The hearing in the Court of Appeal into the application filed by lawyers representing former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and other senior officials of the People's National Party (PNP) in the Trafigura case is expected to be heard today.

The PNP officials are seeking leave to go to the UK-based Privy Council to challenge a decision by the Appeal Court last year.

The matter was set to begin yesterday but could not be heard because one of the judges was unavailable.

The hearing was then rescheduled to today.

In June 2017, the Appeal Court dismissed an appeal which sought to overturn a decision by former Supreme Court judge Justice Lennox Campbell who ruled that Simpson Miller, Phillip Paulwell, Robert Pickersgill, Colin Campbell and Norton Hinds should answer questions in open court about the $31 million donation by Dutch firm Trafigura Baheer to the PNP in 2006.

The donation was made while Jamaica had an oil-lifting agreement with the company.

Dutch firms are prohibited from making donations to foreign governments.

Dutch investigators want Simpson Miller and the other PNP officials to answer questions in public about the donation.